Ruth 4:1-4
4:1 a Most legal transactions, including property transfers, were carried out at the town gate.• friend: Boaz might or might not have used the man’s name, but the author of Ruth avoided doing so.
4:3 b Naomi ... is selling the land: Naomi probably did not have control of Elimelech’s ancestral land, though she did have legal title. She was selling the right to redeem it, or buy it back, from whoever was currently using it.
4:4 c redeem it: The law called for a near relative, the family redeemer, to buy land when a landowner had to sell it (see Lev 25:23-34 d). This practice kept land in the family; the redeemer was a conservator for the land until the destitute landowner could recover economically and buy it back.
• All right, I’ll redeem it: The kinsman could see a great opportunity—there was no male heir and no apparent likelihood that there would be one, so he could add the land to his own estate while doing his social duty for the family.
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